Jill Duggar’s Husband, Derick Dillard, Criticized For Comments About His Son’s Behavior

Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard have admitted that they aren’t perfect parents, and some of their critics couldn’t agree more.

As Us Weekly reports, Jill and Derick opened up about their parenting shortcomings during a recent Counting On interview. As the second oldest daughter in a family of 19 kids, Jill Duggar has plenty of experience taking care of babies and young children. However, she says that “it’s totally different when it’s your own kid.” In an effort to improve her parenting skills, Jill seeks out advice from the other moms in her life.

“We’re far from mastering any skill of parenting,” Jill confesses. “But we do pick up on little tips here and there from Derick’s mom, my mom. We’re always asking questions of other people.”

According to Derick, he and Jill are currently facing a new parenting challenge: Their 2-year-old son, Israel, has mastered the art of manipulation.

“We know that human nature is still there because he’s very manipulative,” Derick says. “He’ll say, ‘I love you, Papi,’ like if he’s really trying to get something to butter you up right before he asks for something.”

Some Duggar critics are slamming Derick for taking issue with Israel acting like a normal toddler.

“You can’t be a human being without human nature,” reads a post on the Duggar Family News: Life Is Not All Pickles and Hairspray Facebook page. “Izzy’s human nature is here to stay. You can not blanket train or beat it out of him. That will only create a human being with mental health issues. Yes, your child is manipulating you. That is what kids do as a means to survive. Kids learn to manipulate as a way to get their needs met and for attention.”

“Their religious zeal leads them to believe that children are just little adults with no moral training, as opposed to human beings who are not developed yet. That’s very medieval,” wrote one commenter in response to the post.

“The Dillards seem to be more about training Izzy and less about delighting in him,” read another comment.

This isn’t the first time Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard’s parenting has come under fire. As SheKnows reports, some fans have expressed their concern that Jill and Derick used a controversial practice called “blanket training” to get their son to behave when he was a baby. Blanket training involves placing a baby on a blanket on the floor and smacking him with a rod each time he tries to crawl off of it. Michelle Duggar has admitted to being a fan of the child training method in the past, but there’s been no evidence that Jill and Derick have used it on Israel.

The parents were, however, slammed for using a blanket in a different manner. Some fans were shocked when Jill and Derick shared two photos of Israel crying while tightly swaddled in a blanket. No one was comforting the distressed baby in the pictures.

https://www.facebook.com/Pickles4Truth/posts/843367502428727

As the Hollywood Gossip reports, Jill and Derick have also been criticized for sharing multiple photos of Israel with reddish-purple spots around one of his eyes. The mysterious marks first appeared on the little boy’s face in December, 2015, while he and his parents were celebrating Christmas on the mission field in El Salvador. Jill Duggar didn’t reveal what caused the markings until over a year later. In a February, 2017, blog post on the Dillard Family website, Jill wrote that Israel had suffered an eye infection.

Israel has been plagued by problems on the mission field. The tyke’s family spent a few months back home in Arkansas last year, and he caught a cold shortly after they returned to El Salvador. He also suffered another eye infection and battled a low-grade fever. Things only got worse for poor Israel when he got attacked by fire ants and burned his hand by sticking it under scalding hot water.

In her April 17 blog post, Jill reveals that Israel recently battled another fever, but this one was much worse.

“Israel is back to normal after a somewhat scary 5 days of him running a fever and not feeling well,” she writes.

Jill is pregnant with her second child, so she and Derick Dillard will soon have double the trouble on their hands. However, as People reports, Jill is hopeful that that her new baby boy will have a positive effect on his older brother’s behavior.

“Israel is ready to be a big brother,” Jill Duggar said. “I think it will be good for him, too. He’ll learn to share.”

[Featured Image by Jill Duggar/Instagram]